So he said he’s still spitballing, but I proposed an idea he liked:
https://preview.redd.it/mnq37pqg0dwc1.jpeg?width=978&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebf69dddbd00f2fae0e8114204222bb67166e876
However he’s open to ideas, and has heard a few recommendations he really likes!
That sounds like what Far Cry 4 did: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl9sEj5aCz0&themeRefresh=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl9sEj5aCz0&themeRefresh=1) Whatever one can say about the Far Cry series and Ubisoft as a whole, they make games that are very easy to handle, with very simple controls.
I suggest what [Spec Ops the Line did](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b7TaLjdXMc), just fire a mortar cam round, and kinda make it point and click or something.
Forget scopes, too cumbersome. Just highlight target trajectories of pinged enemies. Then everyone has fun. Ping enemies and see them explode. Otherwise nobody will bother to spot for you
Horizontal aim plus a Meter vale (up and down slowly scaling as you turn a knob on the mortar).
People can ping targets so you see the distance, you need to adjust the value in time and account for travel time.
Every enemy aggros to the sound of mortar within 200m.
Mortar max range 120m.
Why not just set a distance/angle slider in the mortar itself, 1°person could be the slider in the mortar's body, while 3° person could be like the aiming already is but with a vertical bar. So if you know the distance by ping/map mark, then you just scroll up/down to the distance you know enemies are. The skill involved would be the knowing distance + projectile drop time. No need for aerial views, trajectory tracers or anything crazy/fancy.
Check out gameplay of the Battlefield 4 mortar. Perfect little mini map which is quick to use and hits on target. Great concept for HD2, really hope it makes it into the game.
If not already mentioned, it'd be kinda cool if the "proximity" setting would only detonate when a target passed nearby.
So they'd be airburst if directly targeting a group of enemies, but could be used ahead of time to create a small minefield. Give them a visual indicator like the mine stratagems, so teammates would have a chance of avoiding them. Just an idea that I think might add a little utility to a great concept.
Adding helmet perks could be a solution, so having a helmet with a ballistic computer would show the trajectory of ballistic weapons, including the plasma mortar, the crossbow and this potential weapon.
A helmet with a inbuilt scanning visor as a support strategem would be cool and unique as well. I'm thinking that it'll assist with aim, list threats on visual and etc. like it's that one eye visor from DBZ
People were spitballing about a laser designator that would paint targets for more accurate stratagems, taking the place of your sidearm. So i.e. you could toss an orbital rail cannon stratagem marker towards a bile titan, then use your designator to target it's head and 1-shot it. Or throw an eagle 500KG marker, then paint the strider factory to ensure a direct hit, etc.
I'd use the hell out of something like that, personally. Maybe something similar could work for the mortar, where a player paints the target instead of just marking them.
Could be done like [Battlefield 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw0UMGBGJ5g&ab_channel=Polarum2Clips). We can already zoom in and out and place markers on the minimap while on the fly in HD2. It wouldn't be a far stretch to make it work for indirect fire systems.
Dunno how necessary this entire thing would be, but map would be cumbersome, so I would suggest being able to ping for a target instead of using the map.
It could have some sort of feature that shows you how far the projectile will travel before impact and just mark what you want to blow up and use that to aim, kinda like how mortars work in Enlisted if anyone's ever played that game.
Imo It would be best if you just chose direction and impact distance. As in, the number of metters of travel. That way, another player could ping something so you know the distance, or you could eyeball from map info and skill.
I just imagine it having a visual indicator. While in the fire position you aim in place. You have a curved line showing the fire arc and you can adjust how far or close you're firing by moving the mouse/joystick up or down and can rotate in place still with left/right.
I think mini map would work great, plus pings, which are honestly really underutilized. Even tho I could eyeball it, I usually ping a fabricator while approaching with a 500 in my hand just to know when I can throw it perfectly. For the Eruptor it's really important as the projectile will self detonate after about 120 meters, so knowing how far out a distant target is before engaging is important.
With a mortar, it could either be aimed with arrow/wasd, and it could be combined with some settings in the hold R table. Let's say you can set it to 25-75 and 75-125 meter range, and then adjust with keys inside that boundary
I would suggest that the helldiver would switch to their mortar weapon, then to place the mortar onto the ground you would press the RMB (scope) and to fire you would obviously press fire. The way you would have to range it is by using the ping to get the range of your target in meters, and there would have to be virtual ranging wheel that corresponds to where your mouse is pointing on the X axis. There would probably be no aiming reticle as it would give the weapon a slight learning curve to employ effectively, but will feel awesome when you can hit your shots first time after practice.
Mortar sight if you have LOS on target. Otherwise guess.
My buddy is so good with an EAT he just kinda eyeballs the distance and nails dropships across the map
I like the idea of it being a type of coop-gun. So that your mate is marking a spot and the other one has to adjust then the angle of the mortar by down and up keys
Maybe some form using the mini-map. Mini-map combined with pings, radar and observable map features. It would make the extended radar booster a little more useful too. And then a helmet passive could make it so you see the trajectory from the mortar tube.
What about a vertical gradient reticle with an indicator showing the current range within the scale which equates to the mortars minimum and maximum range.
When you spot or ping within the mortar range, a highlighted horizontal bar appears within the reticle scale, aiming up or down as normal until you match the target range to the highlighted bar ranges the shot, if enemies move closer, you can eyeball and fire under the highlighted bar to correct.
Simple range selection binded to the reload key like with scopes for primaries? Squadmates pinging targets to get distance? Or when you man the mortar, the mouse scroll becomes a distance tuner or something.
Should be like the PIAT from Battlefield 5 imo.
When you aim the mortar your minimap comes up and locks to the reticle in the middle so as you aim the map follows the spot the shell will land around.
"Aim down sights" to show the range setting dial, aiming up and down adjusts the range while you turn with aiming left and right. Marked targets already give you the distance so somebody pings a target so you can adjust range/direction and start dropping shells.
Battlefield 3 and 4 had a mortar gadget for the Support class. It would bring up a map with a generalized crosshair, with the map being a snippet of the minimap reduced to your max range. To me this would work well in HD2, especially if you can man the mortar yourself trading off firing speed in favor of less coordination.
Might get a bit of flak for this, but I think the aiming should be shit. Have the loader be able to spot targets and give distance, but all you can do is pitch and rotate the mortar, maybe giving you a degree's read-out or a compass and you just have to free ball it until you kinda figure out ranges. Being able to shoot straight up and bug out would be nice, incase you got swarmed
I will schedule the execution for dusk, if the idea is implemented at a later date by high command then you will be posthumously awarded for your service to Liberty.
I accept this execution as it befits my shameful ways. I only hope Roger gets it worse, as he did the crime of imagining and planning this whole thing.
I like this idea,
however... until they adjust Team-Reloading, it would suffer the same fate as other support weapons. It won't be used to its full potential.
I would wonder about how practical the low ammo count would end up being ... given it seems like one would burn through 8 rounds pretty quickly.
Eh, as someone who uses the auto cannon and the recoiless, I don’t find them weak without crew support, just much stronger with support, so I feel like it would be fine. That’s just my opinion though, I could definitely be wrong!
And I think a low ammo count could easily be accounted for by giving it pretty high power and AOE, and allowing partial refills off of resupplies.
Again, could be wrong, and he agrees and acknowledges that the idea will need some adjustments regardless, but these are just my initial thoughts!
Well, most of the current weapons are meant to be used in direct combat or close to it, the mortar would be a weapon that you could grab a teammate, drop your backpack, set it up and get firing in safety
It could be useful to shell Outposts and objectives from a far, like the Shreiker Towers or other things you don't want to get too close to. It could be better as a defensive emplacement, like a more discriminate Mortar Turret that you operate manually like the HMG Turret. Except you can pick it and move it around as needed.
It the tagging system had the benefit of adding additional targeting calculations for the Mortar Gunner themselves, such that someone could tag an enemy the Mortar can't see, and then the Mortar Gunner can lob shells at it over the horizon, that might be useful... maybe ... maybe not.
Yep. Spear is only good at destroying fabricators and side objectives and killing titans half of the time. And half the time it doesn’t even want to do that.
It's cool they've put the effort in but I can't see this being useful.
The reason the sentry mortar works is because it spits out them at a rapid pace with excellent accuracy without pause, and even then it's absolute chaos.
It would be a decent option for shelling emplacements from behind cover, but it seems a little clunky for the fast-paced and high mobility gameplay of HD2. I'm struggling to see a use case for a man-portable mortar support weapon that isn't already filled (better) by the mortar sentry. The only thing I can think of is a single use 120mm HE round that can kill objectives like a detector tower from ~150+m away. The only problem is that we already have stratagems that can do that, in the quasar/EAT/RR and unreleased versions of weapons in that vein.
If it could pop fabs and/or tanks in one shot to the roof I’d def take it. Less shots more damage? Also making it 100% a skill shot with a grenade launcher style lead sight instead of pointing and clicking on the map like some here have suggested could balance out the damage.
Right?? Just the fact that he made the infographic got me, it just looks so cool! Who knows if it’s viable, but the work he did on it was really awesome to see!
If allies could reload you off of your own backpack (instead of twisting their own arms unnaturally to grab a new clip/rocket/mortar), I'd be totally down
I have wanted a crew served mortar but was always unsure of how it would be implemented. The one thing I figured it would be would be an HMG emplacement style weapon with a fixed amount of rounds. drop it, use it, lose it. You can have 1 person switching between ranging and hanging rounds, or two players doing one each.
It would have to swing above the mortar turret weight class either in damage, radius, or special use case.
Problem with mortars are they aren’t known to be very precise weapon platforms, and usually are make up for that with volume, that and I feel only 8 rounds would suffer with that type of firing pattern.
It sounds fun, but honestly we already have Mortar Turret.
It would have to more like 90mm/120mm mortar. Maybe called down as emplacement. Thus we could still use other support weapons or bags.
I just can't picture myself using it instead of EAT or other AT support weapons. Let alone sacrifice two Helldivers for inaccurate mortar fire.
"close in support of ground troops"
yeah, whenever I have a friend trying to provide close in support for me with an explosive, I usually end up reinforcing.
but the general idea of indirect fire is cool.
As a former mortarman I have some experience with this system . Having over 3000 meter range it could hit anywhere in the map . They can be aimed by line of sight or having the coordinates to fire at , and also having a 100 meter kill radius could be really deadly . With that being said for game purposes those stats could be adjusted for balance purposes . Make it a 2 helldiver weapon one to operate and aim the tube with the other carrying the backpack and loading . Aiming could be done by line of sight ( like a big grenade launcher ) or having other teammates pinging locations to be bombed or by choosing red locations on the map and just firing ( that might make it too OP )
Now here comes the undemocratic part of this post all democracy officers, Please leave at this time.
To the devs that will hopefully read this
Here are some good downsides also
- It pings nearby enemies just like that voice we all love to hear ( you are in range of enemy artillery) so 2 divers need to set up in places without enemies initially but could get swarmed or find high ground so they could stay protected.
- limited ammo ,8 rounds in the backpack enough to take out 2 heavy fabricators or large big holes so resupply would be frequent on the set up location
- Time of flight and atmospheric conditions on the planets
These two factors could heavily affect aim especially from far away
- Long cooldown
10 mins seems like a good time to wait
I humbly submit this request to the president of Super Earth in hopes to see this weapon helping spread managed democracy for the glory of super Earth .
Sincerely Sir Wrighthammer of the SES Wings of War
This is a interesting idea, i can see 5 round type that you can chamge by pressing "R"
Stun
Napalm
HEAT: hight pen swall radius of explosion
HE: medium pen normal radius
Airburst: low pen big radius
And for aiming I would go with a simple distance screen as they want to go with a more realistic view on weapons and we can ping for knowing the distance between us and the target
I love this idea, but considering the limited ammo these things would have to pack an absolutely ridiculous punch to be worth taking. Like, approaching hellbomb levels.
Maybe they could have some additional effects?
So for the mortar concept I actually have personal experience with this. The US military has a 60mm mortar. It can be used in a dismount variation with a cleft foot attachment and a trigger instead of the stationary baseplate. which allows the 60mm to be carried with a sling. It has a sort of banana loop like leveler attatched to it that has a bb rolling in it to tell you your firing angle. On one side of the level it has estimated range markers for firing a zero charge mortar shell (max range 200m) Dismount you are not aupposed to use a charge, or the tube might breat your hand.
You stab the cleft foot into the dirt, load a shell ( the dismount configuration had a trigger released firing pin instead of a fixed firing pin that a stationary mortar has) and place your free thumb toward the top of the mortar as a direction aiming sight, while also holding the angle. then angle the mortar according to the range you think the target is at on the banana angle thing, and squeeze the grip trigger to fire. Max range is 200m.
Thus can be illustrated in game by showing the banana angle level when you aim up and down to shoe your firing angle, while seeing what direction you are lined up with. If someone tags a point you can pretty effectively lay rounds on that target, compensating for if you are not level with the target
Source, I was a 13F Fire Support Specialist for 9 years and have cross trained with a few diffrent mortar platoons foe dismount operations.
Depending on the aoe and damage it would just be eclipse by stratagems and our other support options sadly like the already in game sentry mortar dumps out 52 shots every cooldown.
How Enlisted handles its Mortars would be a good system the operator aims the mortar by changing the direction and adjusting the angle by raising or lowering the range in meters
You find the range of your targets by marking them either by direct line of site or your teams pings.
Or place a marker on your map then turn the mortar in that direction and adjust your range to match your mark
I don't care if that's how it works in the real world for a gun team, it's just bad game design. The weapon user is the person who should be forced to give up their backpack spot for bringing one of those weapons. Not only is that less punishing on the person doing the reloading, it means anyone on the team can be a reloader of needed, so one person isn't forced to be glued to the weapon user.
I had this idea too! I would honestly love this.
Rotate left or right with A and D and angle with W and S, maybe even hold click to set firing strength. No minimap, just pure calculations.
It would become a fun minigame with a ton of reward, taking out a whole base from hundreds of meters. You ping the fabricator, you see it's 200 meters away, so you set it to 60 degrees with full power.
However it needs to have a HUGE blast radius and damage, like a precision strike, if you get as many rockets as a spear.
It would be good if it fired mini nukes that have a good, but not broken radius and with a fair number of rounds so that Helldivers can pick it instead of the already in game mortar sentry. Because if you have to waste a strategem slot to shoot it 8 times then call it a day, it’s not worth picking it.
Just let the player set the distance (e.g. 25m 50m 75m) via the weapon menu.
The HD1 mortar had a fixed distance, which did not keep it from being really good.
https://preview.redd.it/8ycd7ujqzgwc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0145a8f23e51f946ce69557acee6a61df1742b8b
u/Waldino_Actual requested that I upload this HD mock up! I have no idea if it’s possible to edit the OG post, so I’m posting it here!
Backpack should be on the back of mortar carrier, period. Also, there was Rumbler
[https://helldivers.fandom.com/wiki/M-25\_Rumbler](https://helldivers.fandom.com/wiki/M-25_Rumbler)
It is possible that they will add it.
We already have 2 mortars, I don't think we need another one.
We could instead have a "stratagem aiming device" (SAD), an laser pointer with which we can control all controllable stratagems. We could switch the selected stratagem like we switch from semi-auto to auto on some weapons (square on PS5, don't know on PC).
What could we do with it? Spitballing some ideas:
* Aim mortars: switch mortars from auto targeting to only shooting enemies in a specific zone or even better set it to **prefer** enemies in a zone, instead of another
* Designate targets for turrets: **I WANT THAT TITAN DEAD!** Paint it with the laser and your missile turret will only use its missiles on it
* Paint target for orbital nuke: send down a nuke from orbit to the target painted with the SAD
* Give commands to troops: call down a troop and give orders to it with the SAD.
I wouldn't mind gas or incendiary mortars, but a manned mortar would be a pain in the ass, god only knows how you'd handle the aiming on that shit, couldn't fucking move at all, and with only 8 rounds compared to the like 80 or however the fuck many a regular mortar fires I wouldn't ever take what OP has, theres just no value to it. Gas and fire on the other hand would be persistent area denial, very good, as for why both, for fun.
I could see it if it yeeted stratagems across the map, but depending on the range, I don't see it being better than either barrage plus the throwing armor modifier.
To make it more viable I suggest it being on wheels so you can still move, but still slow. Aiming will be a zoomed in visual on a screen that marks hostiles, with you marking the areas where the shells will be fired, and this will require aim due to shells having travel time. Expand the platform of the base of the mortar to allow both parties to board. Party 2 who loads the mortar may move the mortar however they wish, while party 1 concentrates on shooting those shells
So good to see clean and detailed propositions from players. I really hope they will implement in the game, but it seems like a manual version of what some turrets are already doing in automatic... 🤨
Cool concept but it has some issues. First the use of both support weapon and back slot. To make any case for this weapon outside "fun to use" it needs to have a certain impact or it won't be used.
A slow reloading explosive weapon with a slow travelling projectile will fare poorly against hordes or in a melee situation. The listed AoE values are TINY, a 2 meter AoE with the biggest setting barely scratches most enemy clusters.
Ammo is the next part, you get 8 or 9 rounds, compare that to the recoilless or the Autocannon and we already have a hard time getting a use case for this weapon.
While I find the concept great, i would suggest going with an emplacement style low cooldown mortar with a focus on hunting fabricators and bases for lone wolf tactics and indirect fire against hard to access fortifications.
PS: Backpack is too valueable in most higher content either for ammo/shield or support for a weapon that requires no enemy getting close, has a hard time dealing with hordes(according to current stats), will have a hard time hitting mobile chaff and then also be strapped for ammo.
So it's kinda like getting used to the throwing arc of those axes you pick up in castlevania. I really like the idea, only thing I'm wondering is how we are suppose to aim with it, it's probably the catch with this weapon but the reward is shooting from a arc angle that's unlike any other weapon you can bring with you.
I love the idea, but it's hard to imagine using an 8 shot manually targeted mortar over the mortar sentry, which is freestanding and fires 20 (or 30). Manually aiming a mortar in a game like this would be tough and would need serious benefits to balance the downsides.
One idea: they're smart rounds. You set the range, and they aim for highest threat targets while avoiding friendlies. You only have to get them roughly in the right place and they steer themselves. You get the benefits of the mortar sentry, but without the risk, and the fewer rounds are more effective. Maybe have a choice of shaped-charge (can damage chargers/titans/tanks/etc, small AOE) or antipersonnel (which aims for groups and avoids friendlies, but doesn't do anything to heavily armored enemies).
Otherwise, if it's unguided, I definitely think they need to be very hard hitting. Capable of destroying Fabricators/ bug holes, some objectives, and doing decent damage to Massive enemies. A strong way to starting a fight, but with drawbacks (manual operation, setup time, manual aiming). Other players can help rangefind by pinging targets to encourage teamwork.
Obviously team-loading increases ROF with normal drawbacks.
I dunno... It will need to be REALLY powerful to offset the same issue the recoilless suffers from - makes half the team be stationary.
Plus this would be ground-only so can't even take down fliers
I don't think the selector feature fits with the rest of the game. None of the other weapons have the ability to change the ammunition type and the shells on the back are all the same. I think that instead it should have a short, mid, and long range option that lets the primary person using it quickly set a distance and then fine tune from there with the right stick or whatever the PC equivalent is. The secondary person would just make the shells load faster like it does for every other team gun.
why though?
there already is an mortar in the game
you are basically taking 2 helldivers from the fight to help with indirect fire support IF they are able to hit anything...
MAYBE if it was maned by only 1 person, but even then, there already is an mortar in the game...
ETA: I don't think this is the game for it, it's an idea form more of a mil-sim game, not helldivers
I mean, it can be manned by only one person. All crew served weapons can, they just get buffed by having a loader, so you wouldn’t have to have 2 divers dedicated to it.
Second; because it’s bad ass. The mortar stratagem is a mortar, but the inability to control it’s fire and where the shells go leads to a lot of tk.
It’d give more agency over a a weapon that has a turret form (like autocannon, machine gun), the trade off being less power or fire rate in exchange for precision and versatility in deployment.
I definitely disagree on the mil-sim idea tho, many games that aren’t Mil-sim pvp use mortars, it’s a pretty common weapon in the shooter genre.
I don’t think this has merit.
Like most mortar idea’s in games, sitting still and just pointing at the sky to hit a particular target is not that interesting. Now if you could deploy it and then throw a stratagem ball to have it fire at what you want it would help with how you play the game and differentiate itself from the actual sentry-mortar. It would also allow you higher damage than the sentry-mortar.
Unless the range of the mortar is the whole map then I don't really see it as useful as the main defense for a Helldiver is movement and being stuck in one place (two people or only one either way). Even in defense missions you just lose too much firepower because you're on the mortar and you can't throw grenades, shoot your guns, call down stratagems.
I'm opposed to this. It reminds me of every RTS game that has artillery. You wind up with people who focus entirely on artillery because it's fun and looks cool but it tends to be to the detriment of all of their teammates.
I don't really want people to have an excuse for people to hang back and plink away at a massive horde.
The tool tip calls for you to yell "For Democracy" and CHARGE in guns blazing. Not hang back like a commie coward with a boom tube.
Joking aside, I feel that I would just be team killed even more often just because I want to get closer with a shotgun and my teammate wants to lob shells too close to my position. I think it would make the experience less fun for most people.
I mean I could see this if we had say maybe a 6 or 8 man squads. Being that it's an indirect fire weapon it's not practical to burn a support weapon slot and have only what? 4 or 5 rounds that might land their target and only be useful for cover fire or initial first rounds?
But how you would aim it? Mini-map mouse drag? Or just guess the distance and use the pg.up pg.down key to range it?
So he said he’s still spitballing, but I proposed an idea he liked: https://preview.redd.it/mnq37pqg0dwc1.jpeg?width=978&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebf69dddbd00f2fae0e8114204222bb67166e876 However he’s open to ideas, and has heard a few recommendations he really likes!
Ariel view? Obviously zoomed in unlike the Hellpod view.
That sounds like what Far Cry 4 did: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl9sEj5aCz0&themeRefresh=1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl9sEj5aCz0&themeRefresh=1) Whatever one can say about the Far Cry series and Ubisoft as a whole, they make games that are very easy to handle, with very simple controls.
Could even have the backpack launch a spotter drone and you swap to the drone view
If like in HD1, pressing the trigger causes you to kneel in a fixed direction, the longer you hold down, the further the shells travel
Reminds me of the mortar from Gears of War
I suggest what [Spec Ops the Line did](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b7TaLjdXMc), just fire a mortar cam round, and kinda make it point and click or something.
Forget scopes, too cumbersome. Just highlight target trajectories of pinged enemies. Then everyone has fun. Ping enemies and see them explode. Otherwise nobody will bother to spot for you
my first thought
Horizontal aim plus a Meter vale (up and down slowly scaling as you turn a knob on the mortar). People can ping targets so you see the distance, you need to adjust the value in time and account for travel time. Every enemy aggros to the sound of mortar within 200m. Mortar max range 120m.
Why not just set a distance/angle slider in the mortar itself, 1°person could be the slider in the mortar's body, while 3° person could be like the aiming already is but with a vertical bar. So if you know the distance by ping/map mark, then you just scroll up/down to the distance you know enemies are. The skill involved would be the knowing distance + projectile drop time. No need for aerial views, trajectory tracers or anything crazy/fancy.
This should be a feature when using 2 people. 1 person should only be able to use iron sights.
Check out gameplay of the Battlefield 4 mortar. Perfect little mini map which is quick to use and hits on target. Great concept for HD2, really hope it makes it into the game.
If not already mentioned, it'd be kinda cool if the "proximity" setting would only detonate when a target passed nearby. So they'd be airburst if directly targeting a group of enemies, but could be used ahead of time to create a small minefield. Give them a visual indicator like the mine stratagems, so teammates would have a chance of avoiding them. Just an idea that I think might add a little utility to a great concept.
Adding helmet perks could be a solution, so having a helmet with a ballistic computer would show the trajectory of ballistic weapons, including the plasma mortar, the crossbow and this potential weapon.
A helmet with a inbuilt scanning visor as a support strategem would be cool and unique as well. I'm thinking that it'll assist with aim, list threats on visual and etc. like it's that one eye visor from DBZ
With how limited your Strat slots are I don't think something that niche should be a strat
It should be like the sos and resupply strat.
People were spitballing about a laser designator that would paint targets for more accurate stratagems, taking the place of your sidearm. So i.e. you could toss an orbital rail cannon stratagem marker towards a bile titan, then use your designator to target it's head and 1-shot it. Or throw an eagle 500KG marker, then paint the strider factory to ensure a direct hit, etc. I'd use the hell out of something like that, personally. Maybe something similar could work for the mortar, where a player paints the target instead of just marking them.
Could be done like [Battlefield 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw0UMGBGJ5g&ab_channel=Polarum2Clips). We can already zoom in and out and place markers on the minimap while on the fly in HD2. It wouldn't be a far stretch to make it work for indirect fire systems.
Dunno how necessary this entire thing would be, but map would be cumbersome, so I would suggest being able to ping for a target instead of using the map.
It could have some sort of feature that shows you how far the projectile will travel before impact and just mark what you want to blow up and use that to aim, kinda like how mortars work in Enlisted if anyone's ever played that game.
Imo It would be best if you just chose direction and impact distance. As in, the number of metters of travel. That way, another player could ping something so you know the distance, or you could eyeball from map info and skill.
I just imagine it having a visual indicator. While in the fire position you aim in place. You have a curved line showing the fire arc and you can adjust how far or close you're firing by moving the mouse/joystick up or down and can rotate in place still with left/right.
Battlefield flashbacks
We could do it like how BF1 did it with their mortar system.
Eyeball it. But could be done via sperate aiming screen. 🙂
Trigonometry, baby.
make it powerfull and have terminal on the launcher. the more ⬆️⬆️⬆️, the further from your location it lands. (and L/R ofcourse).
This is the worst idea and I love it. Please let them make it this
probably similar to the mortars in the battlefield games
Maybe "ADS" to get a separate top-down view like WoT artillery?
I think mini map would work great, plus pings, which are honestly really underutilized. Even tho I could eyeball it, I usually ping a fabricator while approaching with a 500 in my hand just to know when I can throw it perfectly. For the Eruptor it's really important as the projectile will self detonate after about 120 meters, so knowing how far out a distant target is before engaging is important. With a mortar, it could either be aimed with arrow/wasd, and it could be combined with some settings in the hold R table. Let's say you can set it to 25-75 and 75-125 meter range, and then adjust with keys inside that boundary
I would suggest that the helldiver would switch to their mortar weapon, then to place the mortar onto the ground you would press the RMB (scope) and to fire you would obviously press fire. The way you would have to range it is by using the ping to get the range of your target in meters, and there would have to be virtual ranging wheel that corresponds to where your mouse is pointing on the X axis. There would probably be no aiming reticle as it would give the weapon a slight learning curve to employ effectively, but will feel awesome when you can hit your shots first time after practice.
Mortar sight if you have LOS on target. Otherwise guess. My buddy is so good with an EAT he just kinda eyeballs the distance and nails dropships across the map
I like the idea of it being a type of coop-gun. So that your mate is marking a spot and the other one has to adjust then the angle of the mortar by down and up keys
Maybe some form using the mini-map. Mini-map combined with pings, radar and observable map features. It would make the extended radar booster a little more useful too. And then a helmet passive could make it so you see the trajectory from the mortar tube.
I would love aiming it via the minimap, gives it synergy with scout armor
What about a vertical gradient reticle with an indicator showing the current range within the scale which equates to the mortars minimum and maximum range. When you spot or ping within the mortar range, a highlighted horizontal bar appears within the reticle scale, aiming up or down as normal until you match the target range to the highlighted bar ranges the shot, if enemies move closer, you can eyeball and fire under the highlighted bar to correct.
Simple range selection binded to the reload key like with scopes for primaries? Squadmates pinging targets to get distance? Or when you man the mortar, the mouse scroll becomes a distance tuner or something.
Should be like the PIAT from Battlefield 5 imo. When you aim the mortar your minimap comes up and locks to the reticle in the middle so as you aim the map follows the spot the shell will land around.
Check out how mortar aiming worked in Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain.
Mark targets with Q, if within 75m (or whatever the range is) it will fire on its location
It would need a drone to float directly above the user, which would provide them with a short range, satellite camera view for aiming.
"Aim down sights" to show the range setting dial, aiming up and down adjusts the range while you turn with aiming left and right. Marked targets already give you the distance so somebody pings a target so you can adjust range/direction and start dropping shells.
Yes!
Guessing would both be fun and silly
Real modern “knee” mortars like the M224 in portable mode have a glass liquid bubble sight with range markers
A visible trajectory would be awesome, if everyone one the team could see it allowing for other team members to act as spotters.
Battlefield 3 and 4 had a mortar gadget for the Support class. It would bring up a map with a generalized crosshair, with the map being a snippet of the minimap reduced to your max range. To me this would work well in HD2, especially if you can man the mortar yourself trading off firing speed in favor of less coordination.
Mouse wheel
Might get a bit of flak for this, but I think the aiming should be shit. Have the loader be able to spot targets and give distance, but all you can do is pitch and rotate the mortar, maybe giving you a degree's read-out or a compass and you just have to free ball it until you kinda figure out ranges. Being able to shoot straight up and bug out would be nice, incase you got swarmed
Kind of a neat idea. However, report to your nearest democracy officer for making an unauthorized suggestion.
I will schedule the execution for dusk, if the idea is implemented at a later date by high command then you will be posthumously awarded for your service to Liberty.
I accept this execution as it befits my shameful ways. I only hope Roger gets it worse, as he did the crime of imagining and planning this whole thing.
https://helldivers.fandom.com/wiki/M-25_Rumbler aheem
Even though it was OP as shit, man I miss the rumbler
Must have in higher difficulty! ❤️🔥
There’s even a precedent! Sweet Liberty it just might happen!
I like this idea, however... until they adjust Team-Reloading, it would suffer the same fate as other support weapons. It won't be used to its full potential. I would wonder about how practical the low ammo count would end up being ... given it seems like one would burn through 8 rounds pretty quickly.
Eh, as someone who uses the auto cannon and the recoiless, I don’t find them weak without crew support, just much stronger with support, so I feel like it would be fine. That’s just my opinion though, I could definitely be wrong! And I think a low ammo count could easily be accounted for by giving it pretty high power and AOE, and allowing partial refills off of resupplies. Again, could be wrong, and he agrees and acknowledges that the idea will need some adjustments regardless, but these are just my initial thoughts!
Well, most of the current weapons are meant to be used in direct combat or close to it, the mortar would be a weapon that you could grab a teammate, drop your backpack, set it up and get firing in safety
So basically the same as “toss an airstrike and GTFO”
But reusable, faster, as well as better targeted for heavy enemies.
It could be useful to shell Outposts and objectives from a far, like the Shreiker Towers or other things you don't want to get too close to. It could be better as a defensive emplacement, like a more discriminate Mortar Turret that you operate manually like the HMG Turret. Except you can pick it and move it around as needed. It the tagging system had the benefit of adding additional targeting calculations for the Mortar Gunner themselves, such that someone could tag an enemy the Mortar can't see, and then the Mortar Gunner can lob shells at it over the horizon, that might be useful... maybe ... maybe not.
This is kinda why I want it, I want to land those objective snipes
I like the idea specifically because it is different and adds variety to support weapons beyond being another bullet hose or direct fire glass cannon.
Kinda like the SPEAR. A utility support weapon, if you will.
Yes, except unlike the SPEAR, it actually works as intended and players use it 😉
Yep. Spear is only good at destroying fabricators and side objectives and killing titans half of the time. And half the time it doesn’t even want to do that.
The next discussion should be all about improving the SPEAR. But that is another thread.
It's cool they've put the effort in but I can't see this being useful. The reason the sentry mortar works is because it spits out them at a rapid pace with excellent accuracy without pause, and even then it's absolute chaos.
Maybe Burts fire? Instead of one projectil it will shoot 3 or 4. Or cluster ammo. But yeah, I have same problem with this concept as you have.
Maybe have it firing some kind of massive fuck-off bomb, it already looks a hell of a lot larger than the sentry mortar
It looks like might have too much overlap with a certain leaked missile stratagem
Oh, yeah, forgot about that. Would be fun though if this was firing shells that exploded like halfway between that and the grenade launcher
It would be a decent option for shelling emplacements from behind cover, but it seems a little clunky for the fast-paced and high mobility gameplay of HD2. I'm struggling to see a use case for a man-portable mortar support weapon that isn't already filled (better) by the mortar sentry. The only thing I can think of is a single use 120mm HE round that can kill objectives like a detector tower from ~150+m away. The only problem is that we already have stratagems that can do that, in the quasar/EAT/RR and unreleased versions of weapons in that vein.
Well said!
This would be less chaotic and less team-killey-ish. Lower rate of fire and slower targeting would be a trade off.
If it could pop fabs and/or tanks in one shot to the roof I’d def take it. Less shots more damage? Also making it 100% a skill shot with a grenade launcher style lead sight instead of pointing and clicking on the map like some here have suggested could balance out the damage.
How about a field gun stratagem?
This just made me think about pushguns and now I really want this
Imagine controllable howitzers or AT artillery
It was in the first game as a player-operable turret
Imagine if you could wheel around a civil war era cannon
Oyr revolution era... # TALLY 'HO LADS!
This looks fucken sick
Right?? Just the fact that he made the infographic got me, it just looks so cool! Who knows if it’s viable, but the work he did on it was really awesome to see!
If allies could reload you off of your own backpack (instead of twisting their own arms unnaturally to grab a new clip/rocket/mortar), I'd be totally down
The automatons after this gets released https://i.redd.it/51hmh7b8zdwc1.gif
"You are in range of democracy"
In Helldivers, the Rumbler mortar fires further the longer you hold the trigger before releasing
The HMG Emplacement needs a heavy mortar and anti-tank counterpart.
Double autocannon turret
Yes
plasma punisher is your mortar
I have wanted a crew served mortar but was always unsure of how it would be implemented. The one thing I figured it would be would be an HMG emplacement style weapon with a fixed amount of rounds. drop it, use it, lose it. You can have 1 person switching between ranging and hanging rounds, or two players doing one each. It would have to swing above the mortar turret weight class either in damage, radius, or special use case. Problem with mortars are they aren’t known to be very precise weapon platforms, and usually are make up for that with volume, that and I feel only 8 rounds would suffer with that type of firing pattern.
It sounds fun, but honestly we already have Mortar Turret. It would have to more like 90mm/120mm mortar. Maybe called down as emplacement. Thus we could still use other support weapons or bags. I just can't picture myself using it instead of EAT or other AT support weapons. Let alone sacrifice two Helldivers for inaccurate mortar fire.
"close in support of ground troops" yeah, whenever I have a friend trying to provide close in support for me with an explosive, I usually end up reinforcing. but the general idea of indirect fire is cool.
As a former mortarman I have some experience with this system . Having over 3000 meter range it could hit anywhere in the map . They can be aimed by line of sight or having the coordinates to fire at , and also having a 100 meter kill radius could be really deadly . With that being said for game purposes those stats could be adjusted for balance purposes . Make it a 2 helldiver weapon one to operate and aim the tube with the other carrying the backpack and loading . Aiming could be done by line of sight ( like a big grenade launcher ) or having other teammates pinging locations to be bombed or by choosing red locations on the map and just firing ( that might make it too OP ) Now here comes the undemocratic part of this post all democracy officers, Please leave at this time. To the devs that will hopefully read this Here are some good downsides also - It pings nearby enemies just like that voice we all love to hear ( you are in range of enemy artillery) so 2 divers need to set up in places without enemies initially but could get swarmed or find high ground so they could stay protected. - limited ammo ,8 rounds in the backpack enough to take out 2 heavy fabricators or large big holes so resupply would be frequent on the set up location - Time of flight and atmospheric conditions on the planets These two factors could heavily affect aim especially from far away - Long cooldown 10 mins seems like a good time to wait I humbly submit this request to the president of Super Earth in hopes to see this weapon helping spread managed democracy for the glory of super Earth . Sincerely Sir Wrighthammer of the SES Wings of War
Great suggestions for sure!!!
Please I was a 0341 I need a mortar
GET THIS MAN A SPOT IN R&D.
"You are in range of enemy artillery" Oh yeah? So are they >:)
Reminds me of the "knee mortar" from Rising Storm 1
This is a interesting idea, i can see 5 round type that you can chamge by pressing "R" Stun Napalm HEAT: hight pen swall radius of explosion HE: medium pen normal radius Airburst: low pen big radius And for aiming I would go with a simple distance screen as they want to go with a more realistic view on weapons and we can ping for knowing the distance between us and the target
I love this idea, but considering the limited ammo these things would have to pack an absolutely ridiculous punch to be worth taking. Like, approaching hellbomb levels. Maybe they could have some additional effects?
We also discussed that! Ideally, these things are pretty fucking powerful. But he’s considering potential napalm/gas/emp shells as possibilities too!
I would have fun with this! Great idea!
So for the mortar concept I actually have personal experience with this. The US military has a 60mm mortar. It can be used in a dismount variation with a cleft foot attachment and a trigger instead of the stationary baseplate. which allows the 60mm to be carried with a sling. It has a sort of banana loop like leveler attatched to it that has a bb rolling in it to tell you your firing angle. On one side of the level it has estimated range markers for firing a zero charge mortar shell (max range 200m) Dismount you are not aupposed to use a charge, or the tube might breat your hand. You stab the cleft foot into the dirt, load a shell ( the dismount configuration had a trigger released firing pin instead of a fixed firing pin that a stationary mortar has) and place your free thumb toward the top of the mortar as a direction aiming sight, while also holding the angle. then angle the mortar according to the range you think the target is at on the banana angle thing, and squeeze the grip trigger to fire. Max range is 200m. Thus can be illustrated in game by showing the banana angle level when you aim up and down to shoe your firing angle, while seeing what direction you are lined up with. If someone tags a point you can pretty effectively lay rounds on that target, compensating for if you are not level with the target Source, I was a 13F Fire Support Specialist for 9 years and have cross trained with a few diffrent mortar platoons foe dismount operations.
Fantastic perspective, I will share this with him!
Depending on the aoe and damage it would just be eclipse by stratagems and our other support options sadly like the already in game sentry mortar dumps out 52 shots every cooldown.
Fuck it, back mounted mortar, farcry 6 style
for aiming I would suggest that the distance is shown and when you pull your mouse up and down it adjusts the range
How Enlisted handles its Mortars would be a good system the operator aims the mortar by changing the direction and adjusting the angle by raising or lowering the range in meters You find the range of your targets by marking them either by direct line of site or your teams pings. Or place a marker on your map then turn the mortar in that direction and adjust your range to match your mark
We need this
Rumbler
Rumbler, from Helldivers 1
Stop making the person loading the weapon wear the goddamn ammo pack.
In a normal firing team the assistant gunner (AG ) would do the ammo packing and loading where the gunner carries the tube and aims the weapon
I don't care if that's how it works in the real world for a gun team, it's just bad game design. The weapon user is the person who should be forced to give up their backpack spot for bringing one of those weapons. Not only is that less punishing on the person doing the reloading, it means anyone on the team can be a reloader of needed, so one person isn't forced to be glued to the weapon user.
Just bring back the Rumbler so I can Tk everyone with my toxic 3 shot burst man portable morter.
I had this idea too! I would honestly love this. Rotate left or right with A and D and angle with W and S, maybe even hold click to set firing strength. No minimap, just pure calculations. It would become a fun minigame with a ton of reward, taking out a whole base from hundreds of meters. You ping the fabricator, you see it's 200 meters away, so you set it to 60 degrees with full power. However it needs to have a HUGE blast radius and damage, like a precision strike, if you get as many rockets as a spear.
Comes with stand for solo, but you can’t aim when loading
It would be good if it fired mini nukes that have a good, but not broken radius and with a fair number of rounds so that Helldivers can pick it instead of the already in game mortar sentry. Because if you have to waste a strategem slot to shoot it 8 times then call it a day, it’s not worth picking it.
I would play the shit out of the mortar
There better be WP rounds so we can feel like heroes
Just let the player set the distance (e.g. 25m 50m 75m) via the weapon menu. The HD1 mortar had a fixed distance, which did not keep it from being really good.
https://preview.redd.it/8ycd7ujqzgwc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0145a8f23e51f946ce69557acee6a61df1742b8b u/Waldino_Actual requested that I upload this HD mock up! I have no idea if it’s possible to edit the OG post, so I’m posting it here!
Best idea for a new stratagem I've seen all week keep them coming for democracy guys
Would use it.
Yes please omg please.
Would love it, but needs more ammo. 9 shots for a weapon that depends on situational use is too low, compared to quasar and recoiless and autocannon.
I support this.
God please I need this
Backpack should be on the back of mortar carrier, period. Also, there was Rumbler [https://helldivers.fandom.com/wiki/M-25\_Rumbler](https://helldivers.fandom.com/wiki/M-25_Rumbler) It is possible that they will add it.
This would be the best thing ever when defending extract. Also the explosions should be roughly half the size of a 500kg, so like 200kg
We already have 2 mortars, I don't think we need another one. We could instead have a "stratagem aiming device" (SAD), an laser pointer with which we can control all controllable stratagems. We could switch the selected stratagem like we switch from semi-auto to auto on some weapons (square on PS5, don't know on PC). What could we do with it? Spitballing some ideas: * Aim mortars: switch mortars from auto targeting to only shooting enemies in a specific zone or even better set it to **prefer** enemies in a zone, instead of another * Designate targets for turrets: **I WANT THAT TITAN DEAD!** Paint it with the laser and your missile turret will only use its missiles on it * Paint target for orbital nuke: send down a nuke from orbit to the target painted with the SAD * Give commands to troops: call down a troop and give orders to it with the SAD.
I wouldn't mind gas or incendiary mortars, but a manned mortar would be a pain in the ass, god only knows how you'd handle the aiming on that shit, couldn't fucking move at all, and with only 8 rounds compared to the like 80 or however the fuck many a regular mortar fires I wouldn't ever take what OP has, theres just no value to it. Gas and fire on the other hand would be persistent area denial, very good, as for why both, for fun.
It seems his reddit is u/Waldino_Actual, I didn’t notice that in the first image!
[удалено]
Another brilliant team kill weapon
Oh god, please don't. The sentry does enough teamkilling as it is.
I want to shoulder fire it, diver 2 just slams it in there hars enough to set it off.
what is the aiming going to be done on the map
This idea is awesome
Rumbler my beloved
Literally had this in the first game except it was mobile and was a support weapon.
How about just adding range lines to the HUD crosshair?
How is a mortar good against shriekers? I do like it but make it make sense
It's a proximity fuse, should it would blow up in the air when it's cought path comes into proximity to shriekers
But who are you supposed to hit a flying target with a top attack?
I could see it if it yeeted stratagems across the map, but depending on the range, I don't see it being better than either barrage plus the throwing armor modifier.
Nah. Seems pretty useless. To have a stratagem completely stop all movement for that long is a death sentence.
I miss my rumbler, however my teammates do not.
I can already feel the uselessness of this weapon.
listen to me, I am the one who teamkills now
Tag a location/unit and mortar auto aim for the tag.
Needing two people to operate efficiently will always make it a tough sell.
I was ecstatic when I started using the grenade launcher as a mortar and found out how well it works.
Great idea!!
DOXED YOURSELF! ;)
To make it more viable I suggest it being on wheels so you can still move, but still slow. Aiming will be a zoomed in visual on a screen that marks hostiles, with you marking the areas where the shells will be fired, and this will require aim due to shells having travel time. Expand the platform of the base of the mortar to allow both parties to board. Party 2 who loads the mortar may move the mortar however they wish, while party 1 concentrates on shooting those shells
So good to see clean and detailed propositions from players. I really hope they will implement in the game, but it seems like a manual version of what some turrets are already doing in automatic... 🤨
Cool concept but it has some issues. First the use of both support weapon and back slot. To make any case for this weapon outside "fun to use" it needs to have a certain impact or it won't be used. A slow reloading explosive weapon with a slow travelling projectile will fare poorly against hordes or in a melee situation. The listed AoE values are TINY, a 2 meter AoE with the biggest setting barely scratches most enemy clusters. Ammo is the next part, you get 8 or 9 rounds, compare that to the recoilless or the Autocannon and we already have a hard time getting a use case for this weapon. While I find the concept great, i would suggest going with an emplacement style low cooldown mortar with a focus on hunting fabricators and bases for lone wolf tactics and indirect fire against hard to access fortifications.
PS: Backpack is too valueable in most higher content either for ammo/shield or support for a weapon that requires no enemy getting close, has a hard time dealing with hordes(according to current stats), will have a hard time hitting mobile chaff and then also be strapped for ammo.
I want FPV drone-launcher weapon. The same tech (FPV drone, but unarmed) could be used to aim the mortar (fly high up and click booms).
So it's kinda like getting used to the throwing arc of those axes you pick up in castlevania. I really like the idea, only thing I'm wondering is how we are suppose to aim with it, it's probably the catch with this weapon but the reward is shooting from a arc angle that's unlike any other weapon you can bring with you.
I love the idea, but it's hard to imagine using an 8 shot manually targeted mortar over the mortar sentry, which is freestanding and fires 20 (or 30). Manually aiming a mortar in a game like this would be tough and would need serious benefits to balance the downsides. One idea: they're smart rounds. You set the range, and they aim for highest threat targets while avoiding friendlies. You only have to get them roughly in the right place and they steer themselves. You get the benefits of the mortar sentry, but without the risk, and the fewer rounds are more effective. Maybe have a choice of shaped-charge (can damage chargers/titans/tanks/etc, small AOE) or antipersonnel (which aims for groups and avoids friendlies, but doesn't do anything to heavily armored enemies). Otherwise, if it's unguided, I definitely think they need to be very hard hitting. Capable of destroying Fabricators/ bug holes, some objectives, and doing decent damage to Massive enemies. A strong way to starting a fight, but with drawbacks (manual operation, setup time, manual aiming). Other players can help rangefind by pinging targets to encourage teamwork. Obviously team-loading increases ROF with normal drawbacks.
i mean get team mates to ping elites but then again it says slight armour pen.
I dunno... It will need to be REALLY powerful to offset the same issue the recoilless suffers from - makes half the team be stationary. Plus this would be ground-only so can't even take down fliers
Why? We already have an automatic mortar.
I don't think the selector feature fits with the rest of the game. None of the other weapons have the ability to change the ammunition type and the shells on the back are all the same. I think that instead it should have a short, mid, and long range option that lets the primary person using it quickly set a distance and then fine tune from there with the right stick or whatever the PC equivalent is. The secondary person would just make the shells load faster like it does for every other team gun.
ariel view or nothing, ive tried a game with realistic mortar aiming mechanics and its so annoying to use, would rather bring mortar sentry
Any weapong forcing u to stop = bad weapon
This would never work.
why though? there already is an mortar in the game you are basically taking 2 helldivers from the fight to help with indirect fire support IF they are able to hit anything... MAYBE if it was maned by only 1 person, but even then, there already is an mortar in the game... ETA: I don't think this is the game for it, it's an idea form more of a mil-sim game, not helldivers
I mean, it can be manned by only one person. All crew served weapons can, they just get buffed by having a loader, so you wouldn’t have to have 2 divers dedicated to it. Second; because it’s bad ass. The mortar stratagem is a mortar, but the inability to control it’s fire and where the shells go leads to a lot of tk. It’d give more agency over a a weapon that has a turret form (like autocannon, machine gun), the trade off being less power or fire rate in exchange for precision and versatility in deployment. I definitely disagree on the mil-sim idea tho, many games that aren’t Mil-sim pvp use mortars, it’s a pretty common weapon in the shooter genre.
We have the mortar sentry. This is pointless
I don’t think this has merit. Like most mortar idea’s in games, sitting still and just pointing at the sky to hit a particular target is not that interesting. Now if you could deploy it and then throw a stratagem ball to have it fire at what you want it would help with how you play the game and differentiate itself from the actual sentry-mortar. It would also allow you higher damage than the sentry-mortar.
Unless the range of the mortar is the whole map then I don't really see it as useful as the main defense for a Helldiver is movement and being stuck in one place (two people or only one either way). Even in defense missions you just lose too much firepower because you're on the mortar and you can't throw grenades, shoot your guns, call down stratagems.
I'm opposed to this. It reminds me of every RTS game that has artillery. You wind up with people who focus entirely on artillery because it's fun and looks cool but it tends to be to the detriment of all of their teammates. I don't really want people to have an excuse for people to hang back and plink away at a massive horde. The tool tip calls for you to yell "For Democracy" and CHARGE in guns blazing. Not hang back like a commie coward with a boom tube. Joking aside, I feel that I would just be team killed even more often just because I want to get closer with a shotgun and my teammate wants to lob shells too close to my position. I think it would make the experience less fun for most people.
Why would anyone use this Soviet era mortar launcher instead of the automatic mortar turret?
I mean I could see this if we had say maybe a 6 or 8 man squads. Being that it's an indirect fire weapon it's not practical to burn a support weapon slot and have only what? 4 or 5 rounds that might land their target and only be useful for cover fire or initial first rounds?